Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A year has passed since the confession at the hospital, almost half a year since the broken bridges between six friends have been fixed and rebuilt anew from the wreckage. 

The wounds inflicted by the truth slowly healed over time. It's never gone but it has become more bearable. 

As a sea of dark storm clouds rolled over, as news predicted. As white lightning claws over the blackened skies, the friends will soon be awakened in a world that wasn't theirs. 

"Woah! Wh-wh-WHOA!" 

"Are you guys… okay?" 

White lightning flashes in the sky, the rain pelted onto the ground as angry winds billowed and tore through the land. 

"N-No! Please don't let go! Just a little longer… Come on! Hang on!"

"N-n-no! I can't… hold on much longer…!" 

Another lightning crashed from the heavens, as loud thunder shook the earth. The multitudes of voices, their screaming and yelling were all drowned out by the intense storm. 

"AAAAAHHH!"

Before everyone knew it, everything went white. 

… 

… 

… 

The storm had passed over, and the darkness gave away to the gentle blue skies with white, puffy clouds overhead. 

Four creatures lie unconscious on a beachside, the foamy waters lapping over the sand. One of them stirred, but quickly succumbed to unconsciousness too as the pain in its head pounded hard. 

Blazing orange painted the skies as stars twinkled far above the clouds. A small, green, bipedal creature was in front of an strangely-shaped building, pacing nervously before facing it. 

"N-no! I refuse to be paralyzed by this any longer!" Yellow eyes filled with fiery determination, curling its three digits on its hands to make a fist. "This is it. I have to… steel my courage today!" With a huff, it took a step into a wooden grate on the ground, and immediately, voices rang out of it like an alarm. The creature stood in shock, frozen in fear. 

"Pokémon detected! Pokémon detected!" A voice was echoey, amplified by the presumably by the cave chamber below the grate. 

"Whose footprint? Whose footprint?" Another voice, even louder than the first one and it was less echoey. Whoever owns that voice had some naturally powerful vocal chords. 

"The footprint is Treecko's! The footprint is Treecko's!" The first voice replied to the second one, and the creature had enough fright for one day. 

"Waaah!" It stepped off the grate quickly as it got on. Looking around out of fear if someone saw its less-than-stellar reaction. "T-that… was too shocking!" 

After a few minutes of waiting, the voices from the grate didn't seem to make any response, and the bipedal creature slowly calmed down. "Whew…" It then sighed, "I… I can't...work up the courage to go in, after all… I told myself that this day is the day, but…" 

From the leather bag slinged over their shoulder and body, the creature got a strange piece of stone inside of it. The creature looked at it with melancholy as it held the item in its hands, "I thought that holding onto my personal treasure would inspire me…" It gave another sigh, closing its yellow eyes before shoving it back to its bag, "I just… can't do it. I'm such a coward… This is so discouraging…" 

After mumbling to itself, it turned around from the building and began walking down the carved stairs without looking back. After the green creature's presence was truly gone, two creatures came out of hiding from behind the scattered boulders, spying on the spectacle. However, they weren't interested in the pathetic attempt made earlier. 

"Hey, Zubat. Did you get a load of that!?" The purple floating ball harshly whispered onto the long ears of its friend. The bat-like creature—Zubat, nodded, "You bet I did, Koffing."

"That little wimp pacing around… had something good, right?" 

"That wimp has something, that's for sure. It looked like some kind of treasure."

The two creatures looked at each other.

"Do we go after it?" 

"We do."

With a nod, the pair followed the green, bipedal creature, down towards the beachside. 

… 

…

… 

The sunset-colored skies above dyed the calm, shimmering surface of the ocean. Crab-shaped creatures crawled out from hiding as they blew out bubbles out of their mouths and floated lazily into the sky. The setting sun's light refracted against the shiny surface of the bubbles and gave off a small, yet prismatic sheen that made the water's surface almost sparkling.

As the green creature's downcast eyes hit the sun's light from the horizon, pulling it away from its stupor and stared at the sight, the sorrow it felt vanished almost instantaneously. "The weather's good, the Krabbies come out at sundown to blow bubbles… All those bubbles, catching the setting sun's rays off the waves… It's always beautiful."

The sounds of crashing waves against the yellowed sand, the twilight sky and twinkling stars. It closed its eyes to let the scenery take it in, but the tranquility slowly vanished when it turned its head to the side. 

Four bodies lie unmoving on the side. 

"Ah! S-someone collapsed on the sand!" It almost jumped in surprise, before rushing towards them and shaking the first nearest body: a small, gray-furred creature with an unassuming eyepatch covered the right eye. 

"What happened? Are you okay?" The other creature asked, panic laced it's voice. 

Fortunately for the only conscious creature in the vicinity, the gray-colored cat creature stirred once again, its bleary eye slowly cracked open as it got up on its two stubby feet.

"Ugh… Where…?" It muttered, the reality hasn't completely set in. The green, bipedal creature stepped back for a moment to give the other one some space. As soon as the gray-furred, cat-like creature blinked its one good eye, the other creatures also began drifting into consciousness. Their bodies shuddered before trying to at least sit upright, their eyes still unfocused. 

"You're all awake! T-that's a relief!" The green creature spoke up, and for the other party. 

The voice sounded extremely familiar. 

"Basil?" The gray, cat-like creature slurred, staring at the bipedal, green-colored creature with clouded confusion. What was it? He thought to himself. 

Was this another dream? This… doesn't look like Headspace. He looked around, his vision slowly started to clear. He saw himself in front of a beachside, the setting sun over the orange horizon as pretty bubbles emitted by crabs (or what looks like crabs) floated to the skies above. 

He was… confused by all of this. What was this? Where is this? He turned around as he heard familiar-sounding groans behind. 

He sees three creatures. One was orange-furred, it looked like a cartoony version of an weasel mixed with an otter with two identical tails and blue fins protruding from both of its forearms, and a yellow ring surrounding its neck, almost like a floatie of some kind. One looked like a brown bunny-like creature with pink fluffs over the tips of its ears and also covered the bottom half of its body, and the last one was the tallest one of them all, a blue-colored creature with sharp features like pointy pair of ears and spikes protruding from both of its backhands, it has cream-colored fur for the body and some black bands running over where the shoulders connect and over its face, almost like a mask. 

And all of them looked confused as he was. Looking around as if trying to find a semblance of something recognizable aside from where they sat. 

"How… how did you know my name?" That voice again, all of them turned to the green, bipedal creature in front of them. Either they were hallucinating Basil's disembodied voice, or…

The creature in front of them spoke, and whatever it is, it sounded like Basil. 

The five creatures were at a stalemate, the tense confusion was palpable. The short silence was broken by the orange-colored weasel speaking up loudly, and it sounded extremely shocked, "Did you just talk?" It said, and the other three creatures, barring the creature named Basil, that voice was also familiar to them. 

"Kel???" The tiny cat-like creature was aghast, was his ears working right? Was this a dream? He thought to himself. 

"Sunny?" The orange-colored, weasel-like creature didn't deny, but the small cat prompted for the other two to speak up, and all four shared gazes at each other with unadulterated bewilderment. 

"AUBREY???" 

"HERO???" 

The two upright creatures stumbled down again into the sand, they all looked extremely spooked at each other that they all promptly forgot there was a fifth party watching this erratic display of behavior. It almost, almost forgot the fact one of them knew its name. 

"W-why do you all look like that!?" The bunny screeched, she tried to grab onto something but whatever item she tried to grab onto doesn't exist besides her. When she looked, she saw her own paw and scrambled in panic, scooting as far away as possible from the others.

"Why do you look like a plushie!?" The orange-colored creature accused and tried to point to the brown bunny, but as soon he saw his own orange paw, he screamed in fear.

Realizing that not even the other two were aware of their own selves, the tallest among them, he looked at his own hands. They were black paws with spikes coming out of the back side, before looking back at the four creatures in front of him with the same fear and confusion in his red eyes. 

"What's happened to us!?" 

"Is this a dream? Because I didn't expect you to look like a plush doll, Aubrey."

"S-shut it!"

As the three had some sort of identity crisis in the middle of the beach, Basil slowly placed his hand on the closest one to him: The gray-furred cat apparently named Sunny. 

Sunny shot up from the touch, his one eye also seemed to be at a loss and so scared at what's happening as he looked at Basil, who only seemed to be quite concerned at him. 

"What… are we?" Sunny trembled, and his small, wavering voice seemed to grab everyone else's attention. All looking at Basil, the only creature that seemed to actually might know that answer. 

Basil looked apprehensive, all eyes on him but… 

"Y-you… don't know what you are?" He asked Sunny, and the answer was clear as day. He doesn't, nobody does except for Basil. 

"You! What did you do to us!?" The bunny creature named Aubrey hopped towards the duo, her tiny, stubby paws grabbed onto the sling bag’s strap around Basil’s body, dragging him down to her level. Despite her now smaller stature, she was still absurdly powerful. Basil whimpered at the bunny’s wrath.

“H-hey, Aubrey?” The creature named Hero tried to defuse the tense situation, he already doesn’t know what happened to them, but the last thing he wants right now is scaring or hurting the one creature that could probably answer their questions. Not to mention being labelled into something less stellar in… a new world? Hero wasn’t sure if this was a dream.

He used the spike on his back hands to make a small scratch over his other paw, and the damn thing was sharp . Ow, he hissed under his breath.

Crimson blood drew from the miniscule wound.

Kel, seeing his... older brother wince at the self-inflicted injury. Both dawned on the fact this may not be just a simple shared dream.

“P-please! I’ll tell you w-what I know, just don’t hurt me!” Basil squeaked, raising both of his arms apprehensively. Even if this Basil… doesn’t seem to recognize the four of them, for Sunny, Basil was still Basil for him, and he squeezed his tiny body between the two to stop Aubrey from further spooking the other creature. Despite Aubrey turning into a bunny that could pass off as an adorable living plushie, her glare still remained terrifying to any on-lookers, but Sunny was having none of that as he extended his stubby arms out to notify Aubrey that he’s not going to budge as he stared unblinkingly with his bored, yet wide eye.

This seemed to work, as the brown bunny slowly backed off, but her glare remained, but her gaze wasn’t for Sunny but for the creature named Basil, or for her at least, pretending to be Basil. Crossing her own stubby paws with a huff, “Well?” She impatiently tapped her foot.

The four creatures looked at Basil with a gaze of varying expectancy, and he felt he just wanted to tuck his thick tail between his legs and skedaddle, but he didn’t want to feel the girl’s wrath like earlier. With a deep breath, he spoke up.

“You are… a Pokémon."

Silence.

“A… what?”

“Oh, you’ve got to be shitting me-”

Sunny still stood in front of the bipedal creature, and Aubrey couldn't do anything so she sat on the soft, yellow sand, but aggressively.

“You… guys don’t know what a Pokémon is?” Basil said, and the four creature’s eyes told him everything. No, they don’t know what a Pokémon is. After a short pause, he continued to talk, “W-well, a Pokémon is… well, us! I’m a Pokémon, a-and so all of you are!” He stammered, before pointing one of his three digits on his hand towards Hero first. “You are a Lucario.” He said, and Hero only tilted his head in confusion, but Basil continued as he dragged his pointing hand towards Kel, “You’re a Buizel.”

Before Kel could respond, Basil already had shifted his attention towards Aubrey next, “You’re a Buneary, t-though I-I haven’t seen any pink-colored variants like you…” He trailed off, “Bunearies always had cream-colored fluffs.”

Aubrey just huffs, so she’s kind of a… rare variant of a… whatever Basil-thing called her was. Bun… Binary? Bunmory? Agh, forget it, Aubrey tossed her thoughts away in favor of grimacing physically.

Then it was only Sunny left, but Basil seemed to be at a stump. “You’re…. Um… I…” Sunny gave one slow blink, unspeaking but his gaze seemed encouraging, at least. “I… actually haven’t seen any Pokémon like you.”

Well, that’s unfortunate. Sunny thought to himself.

Another silence came over, and the tense atmosphere didn’t go away. Kel was busy looking over his new features, his orange fur with cream-colored belly and was extremely amused by his two new tails. He seemed to be already settled in despite the fact he was no longer what he used to be. Hero was also slowly adjusting to the fact that if the blood from the wound was any indicator, he wasn’t dreaming, not at all, well, at least his younger brother actually seemed to be entertained by his new form.

He looked at his black paws again, flexing the toes on it. Well, at least he wasn’t some sort of quadrupedal creature and can actually use his own hands, err paws.

“Do you guys… remember how you ended up unconscious out here?” This got them to look at Basil again, who was sitting close behind Sunny. Blinking once, twice, before looking at each other. “I…” Kel started first, scratching the back of his head, “I just went to sleep!” He continued, “Just following my usual schedule, and I’m pretty sure I’ve done nothing funny before that.

Hero nods, before giving his own response, “Same as me, I just did my part for a presentation before heading to bed last night.” He said, no quivering in his voice, before passing the metaphorical microphone to Aubrey. She was silent for a moment, ruminating before giving her answer, “...I went to bed.”

It was no surprise for the three of them, Aubrey never liked talking about her life in her home. They all saw it, after all.

Then, it was Sunny’s turn. Slowly blinking, his reply just as short, “...I slept.”

This confuses Basil, why did they suddenly all end up here? He thought to himself. They also seemed to be not amnesiacs, since they could clearly remember what they did last night. So why were they all so shocked and didn’t know what a Pokémon was? Was it some kind of memory loss that only affected their sense of self, or was it something else? He had to ask.

“Wait, wait. You all remember what you did before, but why can’t you remember what a Pokémon was?” He asked, and Aubrey was the first one to pick up that question. “We weren’t like this before.” She said, Basil looked at the other three, their nods confirmed her answer. Then, it was Hero’s turn, “We used to be… humans. Do you know what a human is?” He said, a question thrown back at Basil, and the green creature nodded, to the surprise of everyone.

“Humans are… furless and bipedal right? They’re nothing like Pokémon and can’t understand our—the language of the Pokémon.” He said, “They’re… They say humans used to co-exist here in this world, but they’re all long gone.” Another hushed silence, how on Earth would they be able to process that kind of information. Humans were long gone in this… world, and now they are also creatures called Pokémon.

Sunny wishes this was just another kind of dream, but he saw earlier the small wound Hero inflicted on himself and the blood that oozed out from it. Not to mention, all three of them don’t act like their Headspace version of themselves, unless his dreams have finally managed to produce another version of them but older, which is plausible but these Pokémon creatures are something he has no idea about for his own head to think up and create in his dream world.

Was it really possible it wasn’t a dream? Sunny had no answers.

Aubrey wants to be in denial, every information was too much to the point of overwhelming for her, but being in denial would just delay the inevitable truth that this was no longer just a simple dream. So… she sat on the sand, pouting. She couldn’t even put her knees up and curl her arms around because of her shorter arms and almost nonexistent legs. Sad.

Kel had quickly adjusted to his new, small and sleek body. Slightly disappointed that his towering height as a human didn’t get translated and now significantly shorter than Hero. There was also something bubbling forming inside his body, it wasn’t uncomfortable but he’s slightly afraid that his own body would explode or something, but he also doubts any creature would actually make something that could kill itself. He scooted over Hero’s side, using his orange paws and lifting his older brother’s paws while also being careful not to accidentally prick himself with the spike on the back of his palm.

And Hero is rightfully confused when Kel begins playing with his hand, but he couldn’t blame him, nor Aubrey, or even Sunny. All of them were currently lost, probably no way back to their home. Why were they even brought here in the first place? He’d ask the local Basil, but he doubts he also knows the answer to this confounding question. So, he stayed put and looked over the side, the bubbles no longer being blown but the setting sun on the darkening horizon was still pretty as can be.

“S-so!” Basil piped up suddenly, he probably doesn’t want to deal with the oppressive, palpable confusion emanated over them, “I-I know all of you know each other, and somehow he-” Basil points at Sunny, “-knows my name, but I-I think it would be good to… Reintroduce yourselves? I know all of you aren’t bad, but lately, more and more bad Pokémon have been turning up lately, and many Pokémon have grown quite a-aggressive!” He said, “Things have grown somewhat lawless…” 

The four of them looked at Basil, he looked as if he just poked a colony of wasps and it headed this way, but there were no metaphorical wasps. 

“Sunny.” The gray feline creature spoke first, to the surprise of his friends. I mean, there is no hurt in introducing properly, if not for themselves, but for this version of Basil. “I’m… Aubrey.” She spoke right after Sunny. At least she got her old friend group to keep her grounded to reality, even if reality was slightly wacky right now. “I’m Kel!” He spoke up third, might as well! “And I’m Hero, well, it’s more of a nickname than anything.” The oldest one of the group spoke last.

“N-Nice to meet you all! I’m Basil, and I’m a Treecko.” Basil said, bowing hastily. “I-I actually went down here t-to cheer myself up after a… I chickened out from entering a Guild. He admitted. The mention of a guild seemed to piqued the group’s attention as he continued to talk, “I really thought… my personal treasure would help me build enough courage to join b-but…”

But when Basil realized their attention, at least the ones facing him directly (Aubrey, Kel and Hero) weren't listening to what he’s saying, he felt kinda sad.

“Hey, Basi-”

A strong shove pushed him forwards, tumbling over Sunny and making the small feline Pokémon impulsively ducked down as the weight toppled over him, while Basil himself crashed onto the sand, nearly colliding with Aubrey, who luckily got out of the way. Hero and Kel stared at the assailant, it was two creatures, Pokémon? They had no name for them, but they knew they were trouble.

“Yeowch!” Basil exclaimed, trying to get up quickly.

“Well, I do beg your pardon.”

The bat-like Pokémon and the… weird, circular, purple-colored Pokémon with multiple, small craters all over its body mulled over something. A piece of rock that had tumbled out from Basil’s bag. The purple Pokémon with rancid odor spewing out of its body hauled the piece of rock on the bat Pokémon’s back.

“Hey! Why’d you do that!?” Basil fumed, gritting his teeth to look threatening, but it only produced a snickered from the two Pokémon. “Heh-heh-heh! Can’t figure it out? We wanted to mess with you! Can’t face up to us, can you!?” The bat taunted Basil, which only made the Treecko angrier. “W-what!?”

“This is yours, isn’t it?” The bat Pokémon showed off the piece of rock on its back. Basil’s anger gave way to shock as his eyes widened, “That’s…!”

“Sorry twerp, we’re taking it!” The two bullies laughed harder.

“Hey, give that back to Basil!” Aubrey had enough, and so is everyone else. Hero finally stood up, and he’s towering against the others. The two Pokémon shuddered, but kept up their nasty attitudes. “Whoa-hoh-hoh! Making your buddies to do your job of taking this back? What’s the matter? Too scared? I didn’t expect you to be a big coward!”

“A-ah…” Basil looked like he’s going to cry.

“Stop calling our friend names, you bullies!” Kel angrily stomped on the ground. Sunny only glared, trying to comfort Basil by holding his tightly balled fists with his stubby paws.

“Come on, Zubat. Let’s get out of here.”

“Where do you punks think you’re going!?” Aubrey, even as a Buneary, gave a harsh glare and the two petty thieves hastened their pace. The three tried to run after them, only to be met with a thick, obnoxious smoke that hindered their vision. “S-smokescreen!” Basil shouted, coughing. When the smoke finally dissipated, the two thieves were gone. The group were still coughing a bit, Sunny had it worse as Basil tried to pat the cat Pokémon on his back. “Ohhhhh… W-what should I do…?” He muttered, sniffling. The trio looked at the downcast Basil, who’s on the verge of crying. “T-that… was my personal treasure… I-It means everything to me…” He hiccuped. 

Hero walked towards Basil, placing his paw on the Treecko’s shoulder with a smile, “Don’t worry we’ll get it back for you.” He said. Basil looked at Hero, despite Lucario’s sharp features, Hero managed to make his gaze warm and comforting. “Th-thank you... “

He took a deep breath, inwardly shaking his head to clear his mind, “L-let’s get my treasure back, everyone!”

Kel looked at Basil funny, “You sure, dude? We can handle this easily, and we kinda don’t want you to get hurt further.” The Treecko nodded earnestly, “Y-yeah!  I’m a Treecko so… O-oh, you guys probably don’t know you can use moves, don’t you?”

The four stared at Basil, “Moves?” Aubrey spoke up, and he nodded quickly, “Y-yeah! So let me join you! Zubat and Koffling probably went to Beach Cave.” Basil points at the unassuming cave on the far side of the beach, its entrance covered with vibrant green oceanic shrubbery and barnacles. “I-it should be a good way to… be more comfortable with your new forms as a Pokémon.”

Sunny, Aubrey, Kel and Hero looked at each other and pondered for a moment. They were staying here for probably prolonged periods of time, so they had to get the hang of being a Pokémon quickly. “Alright, but all of us have to stick together, alright?” Hero said.

“Mm.”

“Alright, alright.”

“Yahoo!”

“That’s fine by me.”

The five-band party shuffled into the cave, they were immediately greeted by the scent of the salty tang of ocean and the dampness of the cave. Puddles of seawater scattered all over the floor, and the party were careful to not slip on it or on slick stony surfaces. 

Passing through a shallow tide pool along their way, the five Pokémon made a short stop. With Basil’s permission, they looked over their reflections over the water

Sunny ran his paw over his eyepatch, then began playing with his large, folded ears on top of his head. It was an enthralling experience for the young human-turned-Pokémon. He gave a slight tug at his fur tufts on his fuzzy cheeks before just tousling them. Sunny hadn't realized how fluffy he felt.

Kel squished and pulled his cheeks as he saw himself, he looked like a mix between what looks like a weasel and a sea otter. He poked the strange yellow ring around his neck, and when he felt the sensation of touch signalled to his brain, he quickly realized it was actually a part of his body.

Aubrey looked at her own self, she looked like a bunny-shaped plush doll just as Kel had described her, and her black-colored eyes seemed like they were glazed over with just the faintest of cyan. She… doesn’t really mind her new form, she liked bunnies and the world probably had complied to turn her into one when she got transferred here. She poked the lopped ear on her ear, the fluff on the ear’s tip was soft to the touch and her paw reeled backwards from that surprise. She has decided to never allow Kel to touch her ear puffs. Sunny? Maybe when he asks.

Hero’s first impression of his new body was his striking red eyes and his canine-like appearance, he also now sees clearly there’s also a third spike protruding right in the middle of his chest and he wasn’t sure what to do with information. He made a small nudge on the spike in the middle, he could feel it actually attached to his body. Maybe it was made out of keratin like a rhinoceros horn, what he couldn’t wrap his head around was why is it in his chest???

After a few minutes of them adjusting to their new bodies, now seeing what they looked like, the party continued onwards. Sunny in the front, followed by Kel, then Aubrey, then Hero and finally Basil at the back.

Before long, they come face to face with a brand new Pokémon.

The Pokémon in question was blue and green in coloration, small and it looked like a very colorful sea slug. The creature angrily hissed at the party, before making a gurgling noise in its throat. The party stepped back from the unknown aggressive Pokémon, before it sprayed out some sort of water and soil off of its mouth towards one of them: Kel.

“Eww!” Kel recoiled as mud hit his face, he tried to wipe the soil off of his eyes. “What the heck!?”

“That’s a Shellos!” Basil warned, huffing, as he tried to catch up with the rest, “It...It can use a bunch of ground-type moves!” He explains, “That attack was called Mud-Slap, i-it’s pretty weak, but it’ll really sting your eyes!”

“You should’ve told us earlier!” Aubrey said, hopping side to side to avoid the Shellos’s barrage of mud-based attacks, before closing in and grabbing the sea slug Pokémon by its neck. She reeled her head back in, before slamming it onto the Shellos’s own head with a mighty ‘conk!’ and the Pokémon was down for the count. “W-wow… I didn’t know a Buneary could learn Headbutt!” Basil commented, which just made Aubrey look at him strangely.

Hero and Sunny, on the other hand, weren’t really faring well. Was Hero supposed to just punch down these aggressive creatures? For him, it felt bad, it felt like fighting a bunch of wild animals, but does it really matter when he himself also turned one of them? “Stay back, Sunny! I’ll deal with that… thing!” A brown-shelled Pokémon skittered on the cave floor, before leaping with considerable strength into the air and prepared its sharp claws to strike Hero. Sunny hid behind Hero, and as if his own leg had minds of their own, his eyes glowed with a bright blue light. As if time considerably slowed down in his perspective, Hero could see the hard-shelled Pokémon slowly descending from the air with the intent to hurt him and Sunny with its frenzied red eyes within the pitch black body it has.

Grabbing the tiny cat-like Pokémon in his arm, he skillfully managed to dodge the weird horseshoe crab-looking Pokémon and time once again moved normally for Hero as he landed on the side, as the glowing dissipated from his eyes.

Hero blinked dumbfoundedly, what just happened?

“A-ah, you used Detect!”  Basil, after helping Kel wipe off the mud from his face, had come running to aid the two of them. Hero looked at Basil, even without words Basil knew he was absolutely confused by whatever he just said. “I don’t have much experience b-but from what I’ve heard, Detect seems to make you hyper-aware of your surroundings and time feels slower than it should be.” He explained. Well, Hero did feel like time did move slowly in that weird trance he was in, he wondered if he could replicate that again?

He was so deep in his own thoughts, he hadn’t noticed Sunny’s quick taps on his legs, trying so hard to get the older Pokémon’s attention as the undefeated horseshoe crab-looking Pokémon skittered towards them for another attack.

“Sunny, look out for that Kabuto!” Basil swerved away from Hero, breaking out of his reverie to see the Treecko running in front of them both. With skillful precision, he met the other Pokémon midair, parrying the Kabuto’s scratch attack with his thick, green tail. With Basil exponentially stronger than his foe, he wins the match as he slammed the Kabuto to the ground with frightening power behind his Pound attack. Critical hit!

“Woah…” Said Kel, witnessing the display as the Treecko lands back to the ground on his feet, before going over Sunny and Hero, “Y-you guys alright?”

Sunny blinked with his one eye, Basil just one-upped them all with a single attack. He nodded slowly, and so did Hero.

Maybe he shouldn’t hold back, if Basil could attack a Pokémon without much mercy, then he should probably do that too. He almost got himself and Sunny hurt, he should focus more… Focus… He felt a powerful surge, he felt so.. Focused. Was this another kind of move?

“W-we should go deeper, more aggressive Pokémon might swarm us if we stay put much longer!” Basil suggested, now leading the group and passing by an Aubrey with a sizable defeated Pokémon count all piled next to her. “H-hey, wait up!” She quickly hopped to follow the boys.

The sounds of the ocean crashing through became louder, they trudged through deeper puddles and splashing water all over. More Pokémon blocked their way, a cute, pink-and-white Pokémon--Basil called it a Corsola, blasted a jet of water from its water towards Hero, and once again he was in a trance-like state where everything moved slowly. Seeing the forceful Water Gun heading towards him, he simply moved to the side to dodge it.

Kel came next, running towards the coral Pokémon, he feels a surge of power over his… tails? He sees them glowing white, and though Kel himself doesn’t know what’s happening, his Buizel body knows what to do. He twirls his flexible body around and his twin tails shoot out a blast of white shockwaves towards the Corsola, defeating it almost instantaneously.

“Yo! What was that attack, Basil?” He excitedly pointed at his first defeated foe. Basil gave a smile, it was  looking like everyone was adjusting pretty well to their new bodies.

“That was a move called Sonic Boom, Kel.” He answered. “It’s pretty useful in dungeons like this, but… It becomes weaker once we face tougher crowds.”

Kel’s face fell, before becoming chipper once again. “Then I’ll just become stronger too!” He responded as he gave a flex, before showing off to his older brother his newly found move. Basil only gave a strained smile at that, how can he tell Sonic Booms only gives the same amounts of damage whether he’s starting out or has become strong enough? Eh, he’ll tell him sooner or later once the Buizel boy learns more moves.

Hero was more than ecstatic to see Kel learn his own powers, before using Detect once again to dodge another move from an aggressive, purple-shelled Pokémon aptly called a Shellder, courtesy of Basil. Hero can’t just dodge forever, can he? He had to know some moves that actually could damage his foes? The feeling of that hyper-focusness was still there, he saw Sunny struggling to scratch the Kabuto’s shell as Basil helped the feline Pokémon fend off another Kabuto behind him with a well-placed Pound using his tail again. “Kel!” He called to his younger brother, who was already in a frenzy of striking Sonic Booms after Sonic Booms, kill-stealing some of Aubrey’s foes and she calls him out for it. “Get your own foe to defeat, nerd!” She snarls, using her long ears to slap another Shellos out of her way without breaking a sweat.

“Kel!” Hero called again, finally getting his brother’s attention and pointing to the Shellder he was dealing with earlier, now flanked with a Corsola and another Shellos. With a nod, the Buizel made another Sonic Boom and it hit the Shellder, defeating it easily. “Booyah!” Hero, seeing Kel could probably handle two more, he ran towards where Sunny and Basil were, and as he ran, he felt lighter, faster.

Before he knew it, he was speeding through. “Wh-whoa-whoa!! You two, dodge!” He warns Sunny and Basil. The two looked at the oncoming Lucario running at a breakneck speed, as afterimages of his form trailed behind. Basil grabs Sunny by the arm, whisking both of them away from Hero’s Quick Attack! He tackled the Kabuto with the force of a critical hit and the poor thing went flying and crashed onto the cave wall.

When the attack connected, he felt the focused state he’s in vanished, and so did his sudden lightness he felt earlier. He panted, adrenaline rushed throughout his body, before giving a tired thumbs-up at the duo. Basil responded with his own thumbs-up, “That was Quick Attack! As the same implies, you’ll feel super fast and then use that momentum to strike your enemy.” The Treecko explained. 

But before they could all truly rest, another Kabuto came skittering in quickly to attack Hero when he was distracted. Basil ran to meet the Pokémon and attacked it with another Pound, but it wasn’t out cold yet and responded back with a Scratch that hit on his side, making the Treecko yowl in pain. “Basil!” Hero gasped, readying to attack the assailant before seeing Sunny run as fast as his stubby legs could muster and reeling his paws, before striking Kabuto on its legs. Sunny realized he had retractable claws on his paws.

The combined effort of attacks Basil and Sunny dealt on the Kabuto finally made the Pokémon succumb into unconsciousness. The cave once again filled with nothing but the sounds of ocean waves, whatever foes that wanted to attack the group finally realized they were going to be overpowered and had decided to not come out to attack anymore. The five Pokémon gathered, as the adrenaline dissipated, all they had left was the feeling of tiredness. Aubrey and Kel panted heavily, while Basil gently clutched the side of his body where the Scratch attack connected.

“Are you guys alright?” Hero asked everyone, despite coming out alive, all of them took a considerable amount of damage from earlier, with Sunny fighting the least.

“We… We should be close.” Basil spoke up, wincing as he saw specks of blood staining his hand and grimaced at the sight. Before he could leave, he felt a paw on his shoulder. It surprised everyone when Hero’s paws glowed a faint pink light, and that light seemed to be transferring over Basil. The Treecko felt a sense of relief wash over him suddenly, as if the fighting never happened, and the most surprising thing they saw was that the Kabuto’s attack on the side of his body seemed to just… magically healed up, as if it was never there in the first place.

“T-thanks Hero!” Basil turned to the older Pokémon and bowed with gratitude, though as he raised his head, the Lucario only looked at him with a confused face and realized that this might be the first time Hero had done this. “That move was called Heal Pulse!” Basil quickly explained, “It’s exactly what it sounds like, and I don’t really need to explain what it does, now do I?” He said, making Hero shake his head no. “Don’t need to.” He responded.

The day keeps getting weirder and weirder. At least he had the power to heal his friends, he thought to himself. He went over and between Kel and Aubrey, both of his paws touching their heads, as the familiar pink light washed over them. Like Basil, they felt the same feeling of relief and relaxation.

“Oh, that felt goooooood!” Kel hummed, and Aubrey only huffs and closes her eyes, but it’s clear she enjoyed the therapeutic sensation she felt from the move.

“There.” Hero removed his paws over their hands, and Kel immediately groaned when the relaxing feeling was suddenly gone. He looked at Sunny if he needed to heal, but the young Pokémon shook his head.

Well, whether he said yes or no, Hero just held his paw over his head anyways as his Heal Pulse did the same to everyone else. Sunny looked like he found peace for the first time in a long while, letting the same therapeutic feeling wash over him before removing his paw on his head. “We should all be healed and healthy enough to deal with those pretty crooks.” Hero said, and the rest of the party nodded. Aubrey and Kel beamed, Aubrey more so looked like she wanted to bash a head, or two in with her familiar grin on her face.

As they slid down further below the cave, they were met with a dead end with sea water flooding throughout with only a small inlet in the middle. Lucky for them, unlucky for the two thieves that took away Basil’s treasure.

Basil stepped his foot forward, “H-hey!” He called the two crooks, garnering their attention. The duo only chuckled at the sight of Basil quivering, “Well, well… if it isn’t our friend, the big chicken.”

“I said don’t call him names!” Kel barked from behind, a growl rumbled in his throat. Wow, that felt oddly weird, Kel thought to himself.

“Heh-heh-heh! You even brought your weirdo friends! Are you really that scared to deal with us alone?” The Zubat snickered, and Basil backed down for a moment, before stepping back up and steeling his nerves. “Give… Give me back what you stole from me!” He yelled, “That’s my personal treasure! It means everything to me!”

“Treasure, you say? So this thing really is valuable, huh?” Zubat replied, as Koffing commented, “It could be worth more than we'd hoped for, I'd say. We ought to try selling it. Who knows? It might get a good price. Whoa-hoh-hoh! All the more reason not to give it back!” The two crooks laughed at his face. Basil despaired at the thought of his one and only valuable treasure, sold off to some jerk who wouldn’t see its true value.

“Give Basil back his personal treasure, you shits.” Aubrey stepped in. She really wishes she had her nail bat right now, it would be great to use it against these two assholes. Kel followed second, standing beside Basil. He gave a hard stare towards the thieves, then pounding his tightened fist into the palm of his other paw, the only threatening gesture Kel knew, but it delivered well.

The Zubat and the Koffing backed down, but they didn’t relent yet.

Hero crossed his arms together, he almost looked so disappointed in them as Sunny only… gave a terrifying, unblinking stare with his only working eye.

“If...If you want it back so badly…” Zubat’s voice failed to hide his fear, “Then come and get it!” 

“With pleasure!”

Without missing a beat, Aubrey attacked first. She dashed straight towards Koffing, her head lowered as she leapt off of the sand, knocking the weird purple ball Pokémon hard. “Ogh!” The Koffing grunted, but remained steady midair as Aubrey landed on her feet. Kel had let out a barrage of white shockwaves towards Zubat, some hit and some managed to be dodged. Whenever Kel failed to hit Zubat, the latter taunted the former and made Kel more pissed off than he needed to be, “Stop moving so much!” He growls, letting out another shockwave from his tail and the bat Pokémon manages to dodge once again, “No way!”

As Zubat was busy swerving to the side to evade another barrage of attacks, he hadn’t realized a Lucario barreling towards him and by the time he did notice, Hero’s Quick Attack connected. The navy-blue, canid-like Pokémon tackled Zubat off of the air and into the ground, making the yellow sand fly everywhere. Pain emanated all over Zubat as he hit the ground, groaning as it tried to take flight but failed. He got severely defeated by the two brothers.

Over on Koffing’s side, he saw his partner writhing on the sand, shock filled his system. How the hell did these kids manage to defeat Zubat!? He deftly managed to dodge Aubrey’s Headbutts and Basil’s Pound attacks. Once Kel and Hero’s attention were now directed solely to him now with his partner defeated, he’s outnumbered from one-to-five.

“I won’t be beaten by the likes of you kids!” Koffing slams his own body to the most nearby Pokémon, which happened to be Basil before hoisting the still dazed Treecko. In a hasty desperation, Koffing hurtled the body towards Aubrey. Her cyan-tinged eyes went wide with surprise and panic, she couldn’t decide if she should try to catch the oncoming Treecko or dodge, but neither option mattered as Basil’s body crashed onto her, with or without her decision.

“Agh!” Aubrey grunted, his heavier body on top of her. “Get off!” She hissed, but Basil’s mind was still in a state of stupor, not registering Aubrey’s attempt to shove him off or her voice. The Koffing proudly huffed, before a barrage of Sonic Booms pelted behind his back, earning Kel a gruff grunt.

“That’s it!” The toxic Pokémon turned around to take in a big gulp of air, preparing to spew out poisonous fumes, but before he could let it out, Hero tossed Sunny into the fray, right onto Koffing’s face. “Go, Sunny, go!” Hero cheered, as the feline Pokémon latched his hidden claws onto the toxic Pokémon, staring down on him with his almost unblinking eye before wordlessly raising his small, stubby paw.

“Whoa-hoh-hoh! What are you gonna do, paw me to unconsciousness?” Koffing taunted, but Sunny didn’t give any reaction as he just stared straight into his soul, his one good eye seemed to be glowing in a creepy red shade and had made Koffing double-think his life choices he had made up until this point.

“No.” The hidden claws he had shot up between his toes on his paw, before dealing a flurry of Scratches on Koffing’s face. The pained screams made Hero and Kel wince, but to be perfectly fair, Zubat and Koffing deserved it. When Sunny finished, he parted off with Koffing’s face with one final attack before leaping off, and then being caught in Hero’s paws.

Basil and Aubrey already had recovered from the earlier attack while Sunny had been busy dealing damage to Koffing, and they had regrouped together. Both of the crooks lie unconscious on the ground, sensing it was finally over, Hero spoke up and made his friends turn to his general direction, “Is everyone okay?” He asked, and the four kids he’s with made varying noises of “Yeah.”, “Yep.”, “Yes.”, and one nodding cat in his paws. He let out a sigh of relief, but it was short-lived as groans came from the two Pokémon they had defeated, and they all immediately positioned themselves in a fighting stance.

“Owowowow…” Koffing slowly floated midair once again, the scratch marks still visible on his face, courtesy of Sunny. “Ugh… We got roughed up…” Zubat chimed in second, flapping his wings hard to get himself off the ground.

“Blast it… H-how’d we get wiped out by wimps like them?” Koffing wheezed, but Zubat was far more annoyed than his partner at their quick loss, and seeing the five Pokémon that beat the living shit out of them were prepared to strike them the second time, he had thought the hunk of rock was NOT worth to be beaten over for. “Bah!” He spat, tossing Basil’s personal treasure to the ground from his back, “Take it, take it then!”

The team watched warily, but now without Basil’s personal treasure in line, they loosened up but they watched their every move in case they wanted to do any funny business. 

“Whoa-hoh! Don’t think you twerps are so awesome. Your victory was nothing more than a fluke!” Koffing groaned. Aubrey only gave a smug grin on her face, “Ya tell that to our faces! Scram, losers!” 

“You twerps remember that!” With that, Zubat and Koffing quickly skedaddled out of the depths of Beach Cave as the five Pokémon only watched them, Hero gently placing his one paw on Aubrey’s head so she couldn’t go after them. When everything had settled down with only their steady breathing and the sounds of the ocean crashing against the stones outside the hollow cave was the only thing present, they finally got out of the cave themselves. The crooks are no longer there in the calm beachside, but the dusk still falls. The last glimpse of sun still peeking from the horizon gives them enough light to make their way where they had all met before.

Basil cradles the strange piece of stone in his chest, he seemed to be crying during the walk out of the cave and no one can really blame him. “My relic fragment…” He sniffled, “We...we actually managed to get it back.”

He looked at the team of Pokémon right in front of him, tears stained his cheeks, “I... Thank you, everyone!” 

“Hey, hey now!” Kel ran up over Basil, and gave the Treecko a big hug. “That’s what friends do, we help each other out!” He said, squeezing him tight. Sunny came next, patting Basil’s arm to comfort and reinforce Kel’s statement. Aubrey didn’t join in nor said any words, she looked away but she had a small smile on her face and that’s all Basil needs to know.

“If you don’t mind me asking, Basil, but what exactly is this treasure you have?” Hero sat on the sand. If there was one advantage for being a Pokémon over being a human, it’s that his short fur made dusting sand easier off him. Skin made the sand grains stick instead. Basil looked at Hero, smiling before nodding as Kel went back to his place, meanwhile Sunny just settled beside Basil, his large eyes filled with curiosity as the Treecko began explaining his personal treasure, placing it in the middle. The sun’s light was just enough for them to see the markings clearly.

“This is what they stole. This is a Relic Fragment…” For the outside onlookers, it looked like a regular piece of rock, mostly likely a part of some ruins of sort with how smooth the top was, not to mention the strange squiggles of a halved circle, some curved lines that formed like a tail, and sharp lines that stretched outwards. 

Basil explains further how he loves the stories of the ancient past, the treasures buried underneath histories upon histories. Territories and uncharted lands of distant past, now covered in a veil of mystery. How it excites him to potentially rediscover the lost and the missing, and bring light to the old world. How Basil talked about his passion seemed to quite enthralled his newfound friends.

“This Relic Fragment… It’s my precious treasure.”

“I-I know, I admit this looks like junk, but do you see how it is… Cut in the middle?” He points at the jagged line that abruptly tore the inscription into half. The four Pokémon slowly nod, before Basil continued his story, “There… There must be a significance to… to why it has been cut into half, a-and the pattern! This Relic Fragment must be some sort of key to an unknown, legendary place! ...Well, at least that’s the feeling I get whenever I see my treasure.”

He finally picked up the stone relic and placed it safely into his leather bag, “So… that’s why I tried to join the guild earlier. They’re… exploration teams, you see?” He reasoned, “This half of a fragment must fit into something… somewhere! I want to discover where that is.” His smile drooped down for a bit, looking away for a moment, “But I… chickened out.”

Hero gave a warm smile to the younger Pokémon, “I know going into something new and strange might be scary, and… it is.” He recalls the time when first got into college, a place filled to the brim with people he doesn’t recognize and doesn’t recognize him. It was a frightening, overwhelming kind of feeling, “You feel you aren’t ready to take on the world, but you know…”

“You’re totally ready, Basil!” Kel loudly piped up, cutting Hero off whatever he wanted to say. “Did you even hear yourself earlier? You were talking so much about discovering treasures and history! That kinda passion is rare for anyone to possess, you just need a little more push.” He chuckled, a wide smile on his animalistic weasel face.

“I admit, I didn’t think you would actually get me interested in things like exploration.” Aubrey spoke up next, “I thought you would just bore me to death-” Kel shoves his elbow onto Aubrey’s side, and she angrily glared at the weasel boy, but Kel didn’t flinch at her gaze, “-but, yeah, I think Kel’s right, as much I’d hate to admit, but you probably just need some push and overcome that fear.”

If the Basil back in her world and Sunny manages to admit a hard truth like what had actually happened to Mari, then something like joining a guild for explorers should be a cake-walk.

Basil looks at Sunny, he gives a tiny thumbs-up to him. A smile returned back to his face, even if he just met all of them earlier, their constant kindness warmed his heart as tears threatened to form in the corners of his eyes.

Should… should he ask them?

“W-what about you guys?” He said, bringing their attention to him again, “What… what are you guys gonna do now? You were all transformed into different types of Pokémon and you still have no answers why… Do you guys have anywhere to go and stay after this?”

The sudden realization returned once again with full force: They had been forcefully transformed into a Pokémon and they had no chance of returning back to their original world if they didn’t find an answer to that question.

They had no place to stay. No jobs, no money, no food. They’re all essentially homeless, and they would rather NOT live their lives inside a damp cave with hostile Pokémon roaming at every corner.

“Uhh... Do you have any ideas where we could stay…?” Hero quietly trailed off, but Basil heard him loud and clear.

Here he goes, the big question for all of them.

“Um… I don’t but… I have an idea, and it’s… a pretty big favor from me to you guys.” He said. They looked at him expectantly, if it meant living not outside the wilderness then by all means, they would listen.

“What is it?” Kel asked.

“Will you guys… form an exploration team with me?” He said, “W-when I saw you guys fighting together back in Beach Cave, you guys were so cool… It’s like, even if you don’t know how your own bodies work, you guys still looked out for each other... and me!” He twiddled his finger-digits together, looking away from their gazes, “I think… All of us together, we could form the most formidable exploration team in existence! S-so please!” He clasped his hands together, eyes sparkling and they weren’t sure if it was the sun refracting or Basil actually just made sparkles.

The four of them looked at each other, “Well,” Hero started, “We do have zero leads…”

“And no place to go…” Kel added.

“And we’d rather not stay the night out here... “ Aubrey was next.

“Yes.” Sunny summarized all of their answers in one word.

Basil let go of his breath he didn’t realize he was holding, as a wavering smile appeared on his face, “R-really? You guys wanna form an exploration team with me?”

“Well, it’s not that we have any choice, don’t we?” Aubrey pointed out, Basil gave an awkward scratch behind his head. “T-true but… I know if you sign-up as apprentices in Wigglytuff’s Guild, they will provide free beds, food and jobs for their teams!” He said. Sunny looked at Hero, and Hero both looked at Aubrey and Kel. The four gave a firm nod.

Better than nothing.

“Alright, then it’s settled, we’re gonna go to that Guild and become an exploration team!”

“Yeah! This is gonna be super fun!”

“Hah, I doubt that. We’re gonna be apprentices, not first-rate explorers.”

“...Woo.”

Excited chatters amongst friends, Basil felt he belonged. He stood up from where he sat, his eyes filled with a newfound fire of vigor, “T-then… Let’s all give it our best!” He cheered, raising his hand high above his head and towards the sky.

Sunny, Kel, Aubrey and Hero followed forth, raising their paws skyward. Sunny looked the least excited among the five of them, but his good eye seemed to shine, betraying his neutral expression he always wore. Aubrey wore her tough smile and attitude, but she can’t help but feel actually pumped up by the thoughts of actually exploring places. Kel was obviously the loudest, an adventure! And he’s gonna be with his friends and his older brother!

Hero looked like he wasn’t entirely enthusiastic about the whole idea just yet. He would definitely still be looking for a way back home and at the back of his mind, he worried if he’s actually just… gone from the world he used to be in.

Would people notice four people who disappeared without a trace? He worried about his family. What about time? What if they returned and countless years had passed by then? Hero inwardly grimaced, but when he looked at the four younger Pokémon around him, all cheerful and thrilled, he tried to loosen up.

Thinking of the brighter side of things… Maybe time moves faster here, and by the time they’re back, it’s only been an hour?  He’s in a brand new world… without college grades to worry about, no presentations, or group projects. No assignments that would make his head hurt, or the never-ending feeling of existential dread about an upcoming thesis. 

He was here. With his younger brother, his friends and an exciting, brand new world to explore.

They had long since accepted they were no longer human, but now, they don’t really mind being as a Pokémon either.

The party shuffled off towards the stone-carved staircase on the far side of the beachside, Basil told them what to expect when they have truly become explorers.

Basil felt joy in his heart as he looked at his newfound friends, he’d always thought he would either join alone and go become a solo explorer or never actually had the courage to join at all. Never would he expect he would find four strangers, human-turned-Pokémon with no knowledge of the latter and slowly learn the ropes of becoming one, and become friends with them in a short span of time.

Though he hadn’t properly asked how Sunny knew his name.

“...Something wrong, Basil?” Sunny’s quiet voice piped up. He was the smallest among them all, shorter than Aubrey or Kel, or even Basil. He seemed to be really tempting fate right now.

He shook his head no, “N-nothing, but… How did you know my name before I introduced myself?”

Sunny slowly blinked with one good eye, he wasn’t looking at him and instead to the road ahead of them. “We have… a friend back home…” He said, “Also named Basil.”

“Really?” Sunny only nodded at that. Basil wonders, if Sunny had mistaken him for the same Basil back in his world, then were they similar enough?

He’d ask, but he had decided to do that later. As the party climbed the cliffside stairs, they came face to face… with a bizarrely-shaped, pink-colored building looming over them, with wooden grates in front of its entrance.

“Here we are.” Basil announced, “This is Wigglytuff’s Guild.”

Chapter Text

The bizarrely-shaped building loomed over the five of them. Upon closer inspection, it looked like a large, rabbit-like creature and the windows were in place where the eyes should be. Yellowed tarpaulin draped over the sides and marked with red paint, forming some kind of swirls at the surface. Heavy iron bars currently barricaded the entryway and wooden grates sat right on top of an opening in the ground, securely fastened by a ring of stones embedded deep into the earth.

They would’ve been more anxious if it weren’t for the fact the building looked strangely adorable. Stubby arms lifted towards the sky with a wide, happy smile painted on its faded white belly.

“To form an exploration team, we need to register our team here.” Basil explains.

“Thanks Captain Obvious.” Aubrey immediately shot him down. The poor Treecko only whimpered with no response to back him up.

“Isn’t this place a bit weird to be called a guild?” Kel interjected, squinting his eyes towards the gated entrance, “I mean sure, the place looks big, but I don’t know how an entire group could fit in there. I don’t even see any movements inside!”

“Uh…?” Did Kel really didn’t notice the carved out windows on the side of the cliff? Sunny thought to himself. He was about to speak again, but has decided to instead motion his action. Making rather impatient swooping movements with his stubby arms towards the entrance, while just silently looking at his teammates. Luckily for him, everyone got that message loud and clear.

“Sunny’s right, we’re wasting time basically loitering in front of the guild’s entrance.” Hero finally spoke up, taking quick glances behind his shoulders if there were any other Pokémon that were waiting, but there was no one besides themselves. “If there were anyone else right now here,, we would’ve all looked awfully suspicious.”

“What are we waiting for then!?” Aubrey shoves Basil towards the pit covered by the wooden grates in front of them all, “C’mon, this is your idea so stick with the plan!” She said, as the poor Pokémon was pushed to the grates, almost falling face first to the floor but he had managed to stay upright on top of the covered pit.

This had unintended consequences which Basil knew very well by now.

“Pokémon detected! Pokémon detected!”

A cry startled all of them, the Treecko knew it was coming from miles away but the skittish Pokémon still froze up from the sentry’s call from down below. “Whose footprint? Whose footprint?” Another voice, this one was more gruff and scratchy compared to the first one, whoever they were, they had a more youthful tone, probably a young adult still fresh from their teenage years if compared to a human equivalent.

“The footprint is Treecko’s! The footprint is Treecko’s!” The younger voice answered back.

Basil trembles in place, clenching his hands together tightly as he fights the urge to run away. “N-no!” He stammered, “I-I’m not… a chicken!”

“...You may ENTER!” The louder voice boomed, echoing as soundwaves hit the deep pit’s walls back and forth, almost like hearing two voices at once. “Someone’s with you! So get that stranger to stand up THERE!”

“Oh, oh! Basil!” Kel excitedly ran up to the grates, Hero uselessly reaching out as he mouthed ‘wait up!’ but his younger brother didn’t notice any of that. “I wanna go next!” The earlier shock from the disembodied voices was quickly gone out from his system, all it left was the bubbling excitement of having the mystery sentry guard guessing what he was basing on footprint alone. Kel already knows that he was a creature called Buizel—courtesy of Basil—but he still wants to know if the mysterious Pokémon at the bottom of the pit would also know what he was.

Basil promptly made space for the barreling sea weasel, taking place on the side of the guild’s entryway as Kel firmly stood straight on the grates. The sensation felt weird, Kel thought to himself. “Pokémon detected! Pokémon detected!” The first voice rang up once again, and the second voice repeated what he said the first time earlier, “Whose footprints? Whose footprints?”

“The footprint is Buizel’s! The footprint is Buizel’s!”

“Wow!” Kel exclaimed, “How’d you know what I was?” He asked, making his voice loudly as he could so the mystery Pokémon could hear his question. The voice seems to be more than happy to respond back, “Easy! I’ve memorized many unique footprints during my time as a sentry guard!”

“C’mon Kel! We don’t have all day!” Aubrey yells from behind, bringing him back to reality for a moment, “By the way! There’s three more footprints you gotta check!” He hollered back down again.

“Oh, okay! Loudred! Three more!”

“WHAT? Three more!? That’s an unusual amount of visitors in the evening!”

As the two voices exchanged bickering, Kel had been pushed to the side by Aubrey. The weasel took refuge beside the unsure-looking Basil, glaring and huffing as the bunny hopped towards the grates. Aubrey was next in line.

“Hey Sunny.” Hero piped up, and the small cat Pokémon looked at the Lucario.  “What… do you think of, y’know, all of this?” Both watched the scene, Aubrey impatiently waiting on top of the grates. The sentry guards' voices were background noises for Sunny, he mentally shook his head to answer Hero’s question, “I… don’t know.” He answered.

“Hey!” Aubrey’s voice broke through Sunny’s reverie, calling the both of them. “I’m done, which of you two will be next?” She asked. Sunny looked at the grates pensively, would he fall or would it tickle him? Hero took a glance at the hesitant younger boy next to him, and placed his paw on his shoulder. “I’ll go next.” He said, before walking over it. Sunny was the only one left to get his footprint checked.

He sees Kel and Aubrey bickering on the side, Basil helplessly trying to break them up while Hero just puts his paw gingerly on his face; a sign of disappointment as the sentry guards guess what kind of Pokémon Hero was. It only took a few mere moments before Sunny’s name was called by Hero.

It was his turn, he never knew standing on top of a grated hole in front of a weird Pokémon-shaped building was intimidating. Though his train of thoughts came crashing when Kel’s loud voice rang to grab his attention, “You can do it Sunny!” all while Aubrey hopped towards (and avoided the pit) to take his hand and pulled him towards it, “Come on nerd.” She said, though there’s no animosity in her voice. Just friendly teasing.

They stopped short before the grates, Aubrey letting go of Sunny. He stared down into the darkness, the feeble light of the setting sun and the large torches merely uncovered the top most part. What if he fell? What if it broke? What if—

“Hey, you! STRANGER!” The gruffer-voiced Pokémon somewhere down below hollered, grabbing Sunny back to reality. “Get on the GRATE!” And as if on autopilot, Sunny walked forwards, stopping right in the middle. It feels weird as much as he thought, but not as bad either.

“Pokémon detected! Pokémon detected!” Everyone looked expectantly, finally they will learn what kind of Pokémon Sunny was.

“Whose footprint? Whose footprint?”

“The footprint is… T-the footprint is… um…”

Sunny blinked once, twice. Confusion in his eye as he stared down into the grates and beyond the darkness of the deep tunnel.

“What’s the matter? Sentry? Sentry!?” The other voice’s owner sounded impatient, with a tinge of worry. “What’s wrong, Sentry Diglett?”

Up above the ground, the five Pokémon surrounded the covered hole, with Kel placing his hidden ear as close to the ground as possible as he tried to listen in to the conversation going down below. “What are they arguing about?” Aubrey asked, she also had her long bunny ear close to the ground, trying to eavesdrop.

“Hmm, I-I can’t blame them if they also didn’t know what kind of Pokémon Sunny was.” Basil spoke up, “I know most Pokémon living in the nearby areas, but nothing like Sunny.”

After a hefty back and forth between the two sentry guards, it all quieted down for a moment.

“...Sorry to make you WAIT.” The second voice boomed. Aubrey and Kel shot back up from the ground, even from afar, the decibels that other sentry guard’s voice carried made them wince because of their more-sensitive hearing capabilities. “While we couldn’t identify the mysterious fifth stranger… You lots don’t SEEM to be bad…”

A rumbling within the guild, it was the iron gates.

“Okay, good enough! ENTER!”

As if activated by voice alone, the gates were raised up, finally giving the five of them entry into the guild’s premises. “Whoa.” Kel’s eyes sparkled in excitement, “We’re finally in!”

“I-I’m so nervous!” Basil stammered, “B-but I’m glad we’re allowed in.” He took a deep breath, “Okay, calm down Basil. Don’t be afraid. It’s not as scary as you think.” Inhale. Exhale. Sunny pats his back to reassure him. “Okay, let’s go in!”

“Way ahead of you.” Aubrey laughed, Basil realized they were being left behind. “H-hey!” Both the Treecko and Sunny rushed in to follow everyone else. Only stopping behind them a few seconds later, coming face to face with a ladder that leads downstairs.

“Oh, so that’s why the building looks so small!” Kel commented.

“Sunny, you need help going down?” Hero asked the small cat, which he promptly nodded. His stubby legs wouldn’t even probably reach the second rails. Hero picked Sunny up by the scruff, before gently placing the younger boy on his shoulder as he climbed down the ladder. Kel, Aubrey and Basil fared much better, with Kel using his more slender body to slide around the wooden ladder, moving in a spiral formation while Aubrey carefully made her way down by hopping rail after rail. Basil, with his cleated pads, made easy work with the ladder.

As they all went downstairs, sounds of activity were becoming more and more louder. As Hero stepped foot on the second floor of the guild, proceeded by the trio of Pokémon behind him. There were multitudes of different Pokémon all around, all busy with their own little things. There was a brown-colored Pokémon that looked like a very bushy-tailed beaver, next to what looked like a bipedal sunflower with a face.

“Huh, Pokémon comes in different shapes and sizes, not just animal-like.” Hero mused, before remembering they had faced a literal gas-filled ball earlier. To be fair, how they were all swept up to join this world’s Basil in this guild made him forget that scuffle.

There was a worm-shaped Pokémon alongside a navy-blue bird. There was another bird-like Pokémon, small in size and almost like a pigeon mixed with a raptor alongside a literal acorn with two feet.

“Wow! So this is Wigglytuff’s Guild!” Basil looked around the lively atmosphere, Kel was restrained by his older brother lest he run off by holding his head. Being taller than his younger brother has some perks. Aubrey’s better hearing could catch wind of the various topics they were talking about. Missions, tomorrow’s plans, catching outlaws and stopping crimes, exploring and treasures. “Wonder if they’re all part of an exploration team?” She wondered, looking around the lively room.

“Excuse me!” A voice called out from below, from the ladder that was going down to the lower floors. This grabbed everybody’s attention, as a multicolored bird appeared and approached the group. “It was you five that just came, yes?”

Basil nodded quickly, “Yes!” The parakeet-like Pokémon hopped over Sunny, looking over the cat-like Pokémon with such inquisitive gaze before going back in front of them. “How curious! An Espurr!” He exclaimed, turning around as he mused his thoughts out loud, “A Water Continent local, that’s very rare especially the Travel Liner has stopped ferrying Pokémon after so many natural disasters occurring nowadays.”

Sunny fiddled his stubby paws, so he was a Pokémon called Espurr? Like… Esper and purr?  Strange…

“Oh! Forgive me, I’m Chatot! ♪ I’m the Pokémon in the know around these parts!” He cheerfully greeted with a sing-song voice, “Wigglytuff’s right-hand Pokémon! ♪”

“Now, shoo! Leave the premises!” He squawked quickly as he spoke, “We have no time for salespeople or silly surveys! Off you go, if you please!”

“H-hey wait a minute!” Aubrey responded hastily, “We didn’t get our footprints checked to be shoo’d off immediately!”

“Calm down Aubrey,” Hero interjected, before turning to Chatot, “I’m sorry if you think that way, Mr. Chatot, but we are not here to waste your time.” He said, “We’re here to form an exploration team.” At least Hero’s politeness seemed to help make the bird Pokémon listen to him. Though as soon as he reached that last part of the sentence, Chatot’s facial expression turned to shock. “Wh-what!? An exploration team?”

He turned around them again, musing his thoughts loudly for the five Pokémon to listen in, “It’s rare for kids like these want to apprentice at the guild.” He spoke, closing his eyes as he continued to ramble on, “Especially given how hard our training is! Surely the steady stream of Pokémon that run away from our rigorous training proves how true that is!”

Meanwhile, Basil looks absolutely mortified from Chatot’s loud thoughts, was training as an exploration team this hard? “Uh, is it really that severe?” Kel asked, breaking Chatot out of his reverie. He quickly turned around, now realizing he was talking so loudly to himself for everyone to listen in. Flapping his wings profusely out of sheer shame as the other Pokémon nearby, especially the beaver and the sunflower Pokémon, to burst out into a fit of giggles.

“Well...no! No, no, no!” He quickly rectified his mistakes, “It’s not true in the slightest! Our training program is as easy as can be!” He sounded like he’s trying to convince himself, and not the team he’s talking to. The note-stem shaped part of his head and the metronome tail seemed to swing in rhythm as his expression changed as quickly as he could. “Well, well, well! ♪ I wish you had told me up front that you wanted to be an exploration team! ♪ Hee-hee! ♪”

The five Pokémon looked at each other with varying amounts of confusion on their faces, which Chatot didn’t really take notice of. “His attitude… suddenly changed, didn’t it?” Basil muttered. Hero only gave a sideways glance and a wavering smile, Kel only blinked while Aubrey had one eyebrow raised, putting her paws on her waist. Sunny looked the least changed, just kept staring with his one eye, doesn’t help that the Pokémon he turned into seemed to accentuate his blank stare even further. “Mm, yeah.” Sunny said flatly.

“Okay! Let’s get your team signed up right away!” Chatot called all of them out, waving his wings to get their attention back to him. “Follow me! ♪” Then turned around to proceed to go downstairs the ladder, but not before he turned around to call them again, “Oh, anything wrong? Come on. Over here! ♪ Quickly, please! ♪” Basil nudges Sunny to break him out of his stupor, blinking slowly as the Treecko beckons everyone to follow. The party looked at each other, unsure what to make of Chatot’s sudden attitude change but finally, they moved down to the lowest floor of the guild

It was less crowded than the second floor, but it was just as bright and lively with torch chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and decorated the walls. The floor was covered in grass that acted like carpet, with tiny shrubs and plants growing in some areas. A weirdly-shaped building with an indigo-colored Pokémon that kind of looks like a weird, bipedal frog fiddling with the large cauldron behind it on the side, a room smelled of food on the farthest right side of the floor, and a hallway on the farthest left. On a far, southern corner of the room, there was a dug hole with a thick, green vine growing from it, and a purple Pokémon with a large mouth (The other sentry guard?) stands nearby it.

Chatot veered just to the side, as everyone followed behind him. “This is the guild’s second underground floor. This is mainly where the apprentices work.” He explains, slightly stopping to a closed door with a swirly pattern painted upon its wooden surface. “Team registration is this way. Come along, please!”

Before Chatot could open the door, Kel ran off from Hero’s side, looking out on the carved windows on the wall quite enthusiastically. The twilight-colored sky is visible from beyond the window. “We’re two floors under the ground, but we can still see the outside!” Kel exclaimed, Aubrey just hopped over to him to give him a smack on the head, “Ow! What’d ya do that for!?” He hissed under his breath.

“Didn’t you see the windows carved on the side of the cliffs earlier?” She said, pulling his short fur where his ears would be before dragging him back to where everyone was.

“Oh, please! Hush now.” Chatot vocally berated the duo, “But the Buneary is right, the guild is built on a cliffside. It’s only natural that you would be able to see outside.”

Now that everything has settled down, he looked around the group of Pokémon surrounding him right now. “Now, here we are at Guildmaster Wigglytuff’s chamber.” He said, “On no account… I repeat, on no account should you be discourteous to our Guildmaster.” With that, Chatot used his pink-colored beak to knock on the wooden door. “Guildmaster! It’s Chatot! ♪ I’m coming in!” before opening the door and entering.

Kel leaned in to Aubrey, “Remember what Chatot said, don’t be discourteous to the Guildmaster!” He ended up getting thwacked on the face with her ears. “I’m not like you, Kel!” She responded back. Hero forcefully inserts himself between them, flanked by Basil and Sunny. “Come on now guys, let’s not keep the Guildmaster and Chatot waiting.” He said. The two Pokémon just harrump’d at each other before the five of them entered the room

The chamber was spacious, two large windows decorated both sides and banners were draped on the sides and in the middle. Wildflowers growing on the grassy floor, surprisingly not wet with dew and soft under their feet. There were two large chests filled to the brim with multiple, colorful trinkets.

And in the middle of all of it, there is a pink Pokémon. Wigglytuff, everyone presumes with how predominant the round rabbit-like Pokémon’s design was in all over the guild. The Guildmaster had their back turned, fiddling with something.

“Guildmaster!” Chatot calls out, “I present to you five Pokémon who wish to join our guild as apprentices!”

No response, as if the Guildmaster hasn’t heard anything. Chatot cocked his head sideways, trying to grab Wigglytuff’s attention. “Guildmaster… um… Guildmaster?”

Before anyone could even say another word, the Guildmaster turned around, almost jumping with how bouncy he looked, “Hiya!” The Guildmaster greeted cheerfully. “I’m Wigglytuff! I’m the guild’s Guildmaster! You want to form an exploration team?” He asked, “Then, let’s go for it!  First, we must register your exploration team’s name! So tell me your team’s name!”

Everyone looked at each other, unsure what to say. “Our team name?” Hero muttered, before looking at both Wigglytuff and Chatot. “Can we have a moment to discuss?”

“Oh! Of course, take your time friends!” Wigglytuff’s enthusiastic demeanour permeated the entire chamber, humming as the five Pokémon huddled up together to talk about it.

“W-we didn’t talk about what team names we should stick with.” Basil started, “So, what should be a good name for the team?” Everyone seemed to be in deep thought, before Aubrey came up with something. “How about… Hooligans!”

“Aubrey, no! That’s a bad name!.”

“Aubrey, yes! Unless you got a better name to give!”

Kel scratched his cheek, thinking something to retort back, “How about… Ballz, with a ‘z’.”

“That’s even worse!” She smacked Kel with her ear pom-pom.

Kel and Aubrey argued back and forth, Hero only drew his paw over the bridge of his snout. “You two, seriously…” As the older brother stepped between the two quarreling Pokémon, Basil and Sunny were the last two Pokémon left to their own devices. “S-so Sunny, what do you think our team name should be?” He asked. Sunny thoughtfully placed his paw on the bottom part of his muzzle.

While the five Pokémon were discussing, Wigglytuff only watched them with a child-like   enthusiasm. “Wow, these recruits are super active!” Wigglytuff commented on the sidelines, “And they all seem to be good friends with one another!” Chatot watched the Buizel and the Buneary arguing while the Lucario just haplessly tried to stop two teenagers. At least the Treecko and the Espurr were more reserved. “We never had a team as large as this. I saw four or three, but never five.”

“I think… the more the merrier!” Wigglytuff responded excitedly, “Imagine, a full party in a dungeon! That’s super exciting!”

“...way.”

The arguing immediately stopped as Sunny’s quiet voice spoke up. “What’s that, Sunny?” Hero asked, “Didn’t quite catch your suggestion, sorry.”

“Yeah, tell us Sunny!” Kel urged him on, “It would be better than what Aubrey is suggesting!” Another thwack from behind, courtesy of Aubrey. “Yours was worse than mine, Kel!”

“Um…” Sunny’s mouth felt like sand...paper. He should’ve expected his tongue to be cat-like, too. “...Faraway. Team Faraway.” He said.

“Team Faraway!” Basil seems to really like that name, “I think it’s a good name! It sounds like we’ve come from an uncharted land across the sea!” He said, nodding. “I’m casting my vote for Sunny’s idea!”

“Faraway? Like… oh! Faraway Town!” Kel realizes, “The town we all came from, yeah! That’s a common thing we all share, well, sorta.” The Basil they’re currently with wasn’t the same Basil back in Faraway Town, but the parallels between both of them were virtually indistinguishable aside from Pokémon Basil was far more interested in treasure hunting and charting maps (Hey, that last part is even similar to photography!) “Well, it’s better than Aubrey’s by a long-shot! Count me in!”

“Hey!” Aubrey called him out, “Nobody is going to take us seriously with your dumb name suggestions, Kel. Like honestly, ‘Ballz’?” She said, “At least the name Hooligans would strike fear!”

“Aubrey, I don’t think a word that’s synonymous with ‘criminal’ is going to be a good first impression for us.” Hero chimed in. “I concur!” Said Chatot from the sidelines. Aubrey only folded her arms together, “Nngh, fine! I’m sticking with Sunny’s name idea, though!”

“So that’s four out five.” Hero said, “Well, I didn’t really have any ideas that would be a good name for the five of us since, you know, I’m busy trying to stop you two from arguing in front of the Guildmaster ?” He placed his paws over his waist, clearly letting both of them know he wasn’t really pleased with their constant bickering. Kel only scratched his cheek impulsively, as Aubrey folded her arms together, but both of them were avoiding Hero’s annoyed gaze..

“S-sorry.” Kel muttered. 

“Kel’s fault…” Hero’s stare only intensified,, “Fine! Sorry, too!”

“Don’t worry, I found it quite endearing!” Wigglytuff responded, clearly entertained by the whole debacle. Even though Hero himself hasn’t said any opinions on Sunny’s suggestion, it was more than clear that all of them have agreed on the team name.

“All settled then, right?” He asked, the team nodded earnestly with varying voices agreeing to the Guildmaster’s question, “I’ll register your team as Team Faraway!”

“Registering! ♪ Registering! ♪ All registered…"

“YOOM...TAH!” The room flashed with white light twice, like divine words had been spoken. Everyone had to shut their eyes for a moment as the bright flash dissipated away.

“Congratulations!” He cheered, “From now on, you’re all an official exploration team!” He turned around, shuffling something in growing shrubs within the chamber, dragging out a yellow-colored box before waddling back and setting down the container in front of them. “I present you with this in commemoration.”

“Is that a… Pokémon Exploration Team Kit?” Basil went in front of the container, crouching as he clicked it open. Revealing inside was a brown, leather bag with a bright, red strap; an aged map rolled neatly into a scroll. There was also a strange item that caught their attention; a badge-like item resting on top of the bag. It was circular in shape, colored white with a pink orb embedded in the middle. It also had a cute pair of wings on the side.

“Whoa, what’s that circle thing?” Kel inches in closer beside Basil to look at the items. “That is your team’s Explorer Badge!” Wigglytuff interjects to explain, everyone was listening in closely, “It’s your official team identification!” He then points his stubby arm to the aged map, “And there’s the Wonder Map, which is a wonder of convenience!” Then he dragged his hand over the bag, “Finally, there’s your Treasure Bag! It lets you carry items you find in dungeons. It’s a very wonderful bag! ♪ Have a peek inside your Treasure Bag.”

Basil nodded, doing as told and opening the bag’s flap to reveal its content. There were five, multicolored scarves and ribbons inside. “Those items are special.”  Wigglytuff said, “I’m sure they will help you all in your adventures! ♪ You can put them on once Chatot shows the room where all of you are staying while you train here!”

“Th-thank you!” Basil looks like he’s holding back happy tears right now, “We’ll do our best!”

“Hey, don’t forget about us!” Kel chimed in, putting his furry arm over Basil, “We’re all in here together!”

“Yup. But you’re all only apprenticing right now. So do your best… to train!”

“Let’s all do our best, everyone!”

“Right!” A mixture of voices rang in the room.

A little after their team had been officially registered, Chatot led the way into a thin corridor with many openings on each side. Kel had asked where the openings led, which the Guildmaster’s right-hand bird explains they were rooms for the Pokémon who works and trains under the guild.

As they entered the room at the end of the short corridor, they were met with a smallish room with a window on one side of the wall that shows the wild expanse of this world bathed under the silvery moonlight. There were also four piles of soft hay on the floor, and thick, green vines sprawling across the rocky ceiling. “This is your room! ♪” Chatot announced, before moving forward a bit to give way to the five-band team inside. “I apologize that we couldn’t add another bed for your team, we mostly expect two-to-four members in one team so yours is an uncommon number.” The vibrantly-colored Pokémon explained, “But don’t you worry, we’ll add that last bed in no time! ♪”

Everyone looked around in the room, normally it would be spacious for parties with two members, and crowded yet manageable for four members, but five? It was really cramped. “Um…” Hero looked at Chatot, “Are you sure there’s no other rooms…?”

The parakeet-like Pokémon only shook his head, a pensive look on his face, “Unfortunately, this is the largest room we could offer you five.” Chatot said, while Hero only understandably nodded “I see, well I guess it’s better than not having a room to begin with.”

Aubrey looked a bit miffed about how tiny their room was, but ultimately said nothing. “I call dibs on this one!” Kel ran towards one of the hay beds provided, one of the two near the windows. “Hey, I was gonna pick that spot!” Aubrey hopped towards him, and gently bopped Kel on the head using her ears.

While Hero was once again busy quelling the rough-housing between Kel and Aubrey.Sunny tested the hay bed. Surprisingly, it was springy but it was still hay. Coarse and dry, Sunny already misses his soft, plush bed back in the human world. Though he has to live with this one until they find a way back home, there's only four hay beds… “Hey, Sunny. You alright?” Basil gently tapped the cat’s shoulders, making him jump a bit, “...Yeah?” His voice was low, almost quiet, before looking away. “There’s only four beds… Where will I sleep?”

“Um, ahem!” Chatot squawked, getting everyone’s attention. “I know there is the issue of a missing bed right now, but for now, you will all live here while you train under us.” Chatot explains, “Things will start getting busy tomorrow! ♪ So rise early and start living up to our code! Don’t stay up late. Get to sleep early tonight! ♪ That is all!” He said in a sing-song voice, his metronome-shaped tail swinging side to side before turning behind to leave the five Pokémon to their own devices.

First issue at hand: The beds.

“Alright, someone will have to sleep on the floor.” Kel points at Aubrey, “A-” Whatever he was about to say was vaporized with Aubrey’s ear pom-pom shoved right onto his face. “Say the next letter and you’re toast.” She warned, but Kel only laughed under the ball of fur.

“Well, I could certainly… sleep on the floor…” Hero sounds unsure. Sunny was about to pipe up before his black-furred paw patted Sunny on his head, “Sunny, you’re sleeping on the bed and I won’t hear any objections about this unanimous decision.” The young boy just made a rumbling trill inside his throat. “How about-” Basil was also cut off with Hero’s other paw on his head, “You too, I don’t think we would be here right now without your help. I think you deserve to sleep on a bed.”

“No, no! I mean, um… Oh! Kel, help me out!” Basil called for the Buizel. “Yeah?” Kel reared his head towards Basil, tossing Aubrey’s ear pom-pom on the side, eliciting a loud ‘hey!’ from her.

“So, I was thinking... “ Basil started gathering the hay bedding in his arms, motioning for Kel to do the same. “Maybe we could just make this into one giant bed of hay?” He said, as he paced to the center of the room and placed the bedding down, with Kel following suit. “At least we could share it all together instead of sleeping separately.”

“Oh! It’s gonna be a massive sleepover!” Kel exclaimed, picking up another hay bedding to put into the center pile, “Good thinking Basil!”

As Basil, Kel and eventually the rest of the team helped out, they were able to manage to turn the four piles of hay and turn it into one giant pile in the center of the room. Kel marveled at the technically large bed of hay, paws on his hips and twin tails swaying idly.

“It’s gonna be a tight fit,” Hero commented, “but it should be able to squeeze all five of us there.” He then turned around to everyone else, “You heard Mr. Chatot earlier, we have to wake up early tomorrow so I reckon we should sleep.”

Kel whines, “We haven’t eaten dinner yet!” And right on cue, a faint chime echoed in the hallways and took everyone’s attention. “What the heck was that?” Aubrey asked, but only a series of half-hearted shrugs and quiet ‘don’t know’s all she could get. “We could check it.” Sunny said as he awkwardly waddled over their room’s exit with his stubby legs.

Before he could get out, another strange-looking Pokémon entered and stopped him from his tracks. It was quite small in size, and could be aptly described as looking like a living wind chime with yellow, beady eyes. “Hello!” She sounds feminine, “I’m Chimecho! I’m part of Wigglytuff’s Guild but I hope I didn’t spook you by entering unannounced.” She said, her…tail? Swayed in the air as she casually floated midair. “All of you weren’t coming out after I rang the dinner chime so I decided to check all of you up if there was something wrong.”

“O-oh! Sorry, we weren’t sure what the bell chime meant.” Hero involuntarily placed his paw behind his neck sheepishly, “I hope we didn’t delay dinnertime.” Kel’s tails aggressively wagged at the thought of food, sprinting out on all fours. “Last one to the dinner table is a rotten egg!” He taunted as he blew a childish raspberry, acquiring Aubrey’s rivalry drive as she followed him next. Chimecho quickly turned around to yell that the mess hall was right on the opposite side of the crew rooms.

Hero could only take a sharp inhale to ease his annoyance, but the chime-shaped Pokémon only gave a giggle that sounded like a light tinkling of bells. ”I’m sure they’re going to get along well with the rest of the guild members.” She commented, before turning her attention back to the ever-so-embarrassed Lucario. It seems even Basil and Sunny had a head start to join the rest of their friends, leaving the oldest boy in the metaphorical dust. “Come on,” A gentle nudge on his back, Chimecho’s tag-like tail lightly tapping his shoulder, “You don’t wanna be the rotten egg, now do you?” She gave a small smile to soothe his irritation.

“Ah—right.” He took a deep breath, and let go. He was feeling at least a little bit better now. Hero re-focuses his thoughts, probably thinking he’s one of the last two remaining people…Pokémon? Being waited on back at the mess hall. Hero began walking, as Chimecho trailed soundlessly next to him. “Sorry about those two.” He said, “They’re just really handful to deal with sometimes. Doesn’t help Kel keeps goading Aubrey like that.” Hero placed his paw over between his temples, or at least the approximate location where they would be if he were a human. Chimecho only laughed as she patted his back, “That’s alright! The guild houses Pokémon from all walks of life. I’m sure they’ll fit right in well with the others, especially Sunflora and that Loudred!”

Upon mentioning a couple of names, Chimecho swerved and floated in front of Hero as she held his paw using her tail, “Oh! They’re probably all waiting for us.” She said, “I’ll introduce you to everyone… A-ah! I don’t think I caught your name at all!”

“It’s Henry.” He gave her a small smile, scratching the back of his head out of impulse, “But most of the time, you’ll probably hear me be called ‘Hero’ instead. I don’t really don’t mind whichever name you prefer to call me.”

Chimecho seemed to take a shine to that, “Hero… I like it! I think it fits you, I just know it!” She said, flustering the taller Pokémon again, “H-hey now.” He stammered, but she only chuckled at his demeanor. “Tell me how you got that nickname!” She asked him.

“Sure.” He gave a firm nod, before his gaze drifted away from hers out of embarrassment, “Though don’t hold your expectations too high, it’s not as grandiose as you think.”

Chimecho gave a sweet smile in return. “Hehe, I don’t mind!” She said, as the two continued their way towards the mess hall. Guild members eagerly awaiting so they could start eating their dinners.

Soft snores fill the dark, quiet room. Hero lies in the middle of the bed of hay, Kel curled up by his side. Aubrey, Sunny and Basil flocked together on the other side, forming into a tight, snuggly poképile.

“...Oh, are you still awake? My heart's been racing all day over every little thing... But I'm glad I finally made myself come here. I thought Wigglytuff would be scary, but he seems pretty friendly. We're going to experience all sorts of things starting tomorrow, but I'm not very scared.”

”In fact, it's the other way around. I'm super excited about the adventures we'll face!”

“I'm feeling a little sleepy... Let's give it our all tomorrow. Okay. Good night.”